Gearing up after recent resub

As the title states, I have recently come back to SWTOR and I am really having a blast. Before I left the game back in January, I had my lvl 50 trooper decently geared (mostly in pvp gear). My question is this; Is grinding dailies/HM FP's currently the only way to get gear (barrels, mods, enhancements, etc.) upgrades outside of operations? My current gear is mostly gear lvl-136 (mostly pvp though). I am used to grinding dailies from playing MoP so I am not opposed to putting in some effort to get upgrades. Any information would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Higher level gear now drops from Flashpoints. Additionally, there are new harder Flashpoints with better rewards. Using these to get columi/tionese tokens is a good place to start. There is a group finder queue now to make it much easier. Doing dailies for Comms is a great supplement.

Also, if you have a lot of credits there are often high level armorings and barrels that could be better than what you have. I would just suggest to run Hard Mode FPs until you have everything from there. Then you might want to actually consider finding a raid group to progress further.

Thanks for the quick reply. I will continue running HM FP's. As for the Operations, I really want to start running them (huge fan of raiding) but my current pc just isn't allowing me to run endgame very well (barely handles LFR in wow). SWTOR just makes my computer run really slow. I plan on building a new pc over the next few weeks so I expect that to fix my endgame issues.

Thanks for the quick reply. I will continue running HM FP's. As for the Operations, I really want to start running them (huge fan of raiding) but my current pc just isn't allowing me to run endgame very well (barely handles LFR in wow). SWTOR just makes my computer run really slow. I plan on building a new pc over the next few weeks so I expect that to fix my endgame issues.

Check your graphics. They have a new "Very Low" setting that lets even the worst computers run the game at 50+ fps.
The auto set feature for graphics over estimates your computer every time. Never trust it.

I dont have any PVE gear and i smashing out great DPS with PVP gear, and you dont need a group to aquire top end pvp gear, it just takes time to grind is all. Obviously do your dailys as they will give you BH comendations to grab nice little extra's and yes, the AH does offer some very nice mods and of course your can augment your gear with anything that takes your fancy, but you will need lot of Moolar(CASH) - But with PVP gear you can swap out some of the lesser mods and swap around. The customisation is limitless!!!!! - Also the AH is now flodded with nice adaptive gear which you can slot your mods into as far as making your player play and feel how you want its excellent!!!!

Most upgrades can now be purchased off the GTN. If you have moddable/orange gear you can swap the high end mods in as crafters can make almost anything, even the I level 27 armorings/barrels/mods, etc. Also, you can purchase the campaign armorings for black hole coms if you still want to keep your set bonuses but also keep your current moddable/orange/older shells.

Thanks for the information. hk-51, I do have all my settings set to the lowest they have. My computer is ridiculously old in normal terms (bought in 2004, but slightly upgraded over the years), let alone in gaming terms. My pc performance was my original reason for unsubbing back in January. This time around the game seems to be running better overall. The majority of my gear is modable, except my assault cannon, but I prob have one I can put the new mods in. Another question, are the set bonuses on Tionese/Columni/Rakata all the same? At work so I can't look that stuff up atm. Thanks.

Thanks Slugfest. So I guess it just comes down to what set I think looks the best, then just fill it with the best mods. I appreciate the quick responses everyone. This is really making work fly by today, lol.

You are getting the first PvP set for free already now (Recruit MK-2)... with 1.6 you'll be able to aquire the current top-end pvp set (War-Hero) for much fewer commodations and you won't need ranked warzone commodations anymore (exchange currently is 1:3 to normal warzone commodations).

To get better PvE gear try the following:

1. run as many hardmode flashpoints as possible = aquiring full columni except the mainhand/ offhand which you can use the tionese versions.

2.a) when you're at 75% full columni, go for the first HC Operations (Eternity Vault and Karaggas Palace) to aquire Rakata gear.

2.b) simultanously you continue to collect Black Hole commodations, you do 1 HC flashpoint a day... run story Eternity Vault and Karaggas Palace. When you already own some Rakata gear you can also go for Denova and Asation Story Mode. (you can do each operation for Black Hole commodations once a week).

3. if you are lucky you have almost all rakata pieces, however due to the itemization in SWTOR... just having the equipment you get from the vendor is not enough. You have to optimize your gear due taking out mods from your rakata gear and replace with better mods from other rakata items. To understand what I mean, go to the PvE vendor of your class and check all the armor mods on each item, you will see that they vary. For a dps class you want to have the armor mod with more Strength/ Willpower/ Cunning/ Aim and less Endurance. You will see that even columni mods can be better than rakata mods, it all depends on the stats! Important next to this is to keep your crit/ surge/ accuracy (if req.) at around 35%/75%/ 100%/110%.

4. to help you with this there are amazing sites which make it so much easier to theorycraft before spending tons of coins/ commodations. I highly recommend askmrrobot.com where you can keep your char with current and best in slot gear. This will make it much more linear and easy to go from a-b in the shortest amount of time.

6. when almost full 61/ campaign you can start with Asation HC and Denova Nightmare to get Dread Master gear.

To get better PvP gear try the following:

1. You'll need each pvp armor starting with Battlemaster as you need the Battlemaster version + commodations to get War Hero. With 1.6, Battlemaster gear will be taken out of the pvp progression so you can achieve directly War Hero gear. However you will need again War Hero gear to get Elite War Hero gear.

2. The same modding as with PvE applies to PvP

Bottom Line... as you didn't specify if you have a vanguard or commando.. for DPS you try to get as much tech bonus damage as possible while containing your 35% crit (buffed), 75% surge and 100% range/ 110 tech accuracy.

If you have any further questions feel free to ask. One last thing... as soo as you get columni/ battlemaster gear, start adding augmentation slots which you fill with augments beneficial to your class which will raise your endurance/ bonus dmg significantly.

Thanks for the very detailed response Psychlon. Sorry I never specified but my trooper is Commando. He is also an armormech so I will be making the augmentation slots to add to my gear asap. Just one thing, where is Recruit MK-2 located? I tried looking up his location on torhead.com, but it did not return any results about his location. Thanks again for the great information!!!

Thanks for the very detailed response Psychlon. Sorry I never specified but my trooper is Commando. He is also an armormech so I will be making the augmentation slots to add to my gear asap. Just one thing, where is Recruit MK-2 located? I tried looking up his location on torhead.com, but it did not return any results about his location. Thanks again for the great information!!!

You can get recruit MK-2 gear at the mission terminal in the pvp area on fleet. It should be from a quest called "advanced tech" or something similar. If you already have 136 level pvp gear, then it won't be an improvement for you.

Maybe you should just bank comms at this point. My understanding is elite WH gear will hit with 1.6, and WH gear will be purchasable without first buying battlemaster. Of course if you're playing a lot and don't want to wait 4+ weeks for 1.6.... then get BM gear still.

Check your graphics. They have a new "Very Low" setting that lets even the worst computers run the game at 50+ fps.
The auto set feature for graphics over estimates your computer every time. Never trust it.

This (see bolded)

I have a high end gaming rig and I drop to very low in raid to max FPS..game looks fine..then after raid...I just pop it back to very high...piece of cake

So after doing some research based on the feedback I got from the very helpful posters here at mmoc, I found this: [URL="http://dulfy.net/2012/11/28/swtor-dailies-and-pve-endgame-gearing-in-1-5/#more-22100"]. I hope this information is helpful (sorry, I guess I can't post links yet).